If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

System recovery

Hello,

This evening, my mother booted the computer to send an e-mail, but as it didn't boot fast enough for her, she started to hit some keys and she hit F10 (That's the system recovery in compaq). Lucky, the data on the hard drive wasn't erased, but most programs don't function any more, the (wireless) connection is, and programs such as norton need to be fully updated again. It's like everything went back a couple of years, but the recent word documents are still there. Now I searched the entire compaq help-site to find a way to revert the system recovery, but that was in vain.
Does any of you guys have any experience with this problem, and is there any way to revert the system recovery?

1. With MS and other applications you just run the online updating mechanisms, and they will bring you up to date.

2. Where you have "programs that do not work" this is a bit of a pain, but you should find that the folders are still there with all the software intact. Try running the application executable from within the folder, and the application should start.

What you need to do is recreate an icon on your desktop pointing to the executable.

When your mother ran the Compaq restore it would have overwritten the Registry so with any luck all you have to do is recreate the access paths.

If you have apps that write stuff to the System32 folder, then you will have to reinstall. You may also have lost some drivers, and have to reinstall those.

You were right about the applications, they function properly from within their folder, so that shoudn't be a problem.
As for the online updating mechanism, I have to restore the connection to the internet first. 0_o
And you were also right about a couple of drivers that need to be reinstalled.

I wonder what exactly happened? I am sure that your Mother knows exactly how long the machine takes to boot, so it makes me suspect that somehow it "froze" in the process?

When that happens I usually hit the "warm reboot" button (it may have a slight delay on it to make it pet and child proof )

You may have to set this in the BIOS or Windows power options?

I would certainly explain to her that each keystroke is an "instruction", so if it is having problems dealing with what it already has, then giving it more will only make things worse?

Yes, the computer was sometimes having trouble to boot, so it got stuck. When my mother tried to Off-switch it didn't work. (Apperently, not everyone knows that the switch is child en pet proof :P) As she wans't able to turn to pc off, and she didn't want to leave it on, she decided the strike some keys. And the rest as they say is history :P.

Anway, The programs running in the background were already minimized, most of them are useless ayway, I learned that trick a long time ago here.

Over here in the UK it is a bit easier? we have 240/250 50Hz AC current @ 13amps. The wall sockets have switches, and I always use surge protection blocks, so I just turn it off at the mains when the case buttons lock